young Earth creationists

Young Earth
creationists (YEers) believe that Earth and everything living
and non-living on the planet was created a few thousand years
ago by the god featured in the mythology of the ancient Jews
(Abraham's god or AG).
The stories told in Genesis 1 and 2 (among other biblical
stories) are taken by YEers to be the inerrant word of AG,
which they understand to say that he created the planet and all
species in unique acts less than 10,000 years ago. All current
geological formations were brought about by a great flood that
Noah and those on his ark survived.
This view requires the YEers to deny many important scientific
discoveries in geology, archaeology, physics, and biology.
Furthermore, many YEers feel an obligation to oppose science
itself as an evil. This is most apparent in the work of
anti-evolution creationists who blame all the world's ills on
the acceptance of evolution and who actively work toward the
elimination of secular society.

Scientists have
discovered that our solar system and Earth formed about 4.6
billion years ago (bya) and that life on the planet may have
originated 3.9 bya. We have evidence of multicellular organisms
existing 1.2 bya. There is evidence from a number of scientific
disciplines that all species on earth have evolved from common
ancestors, including the human species about 150,000 to 100,000
years ago. (For a beautiful timeline of what science has
discovered, click
here.)

Since YEers start
with the belief that their young Earth creationist account is
the inerrant word of an omniscient and all-powerful being, they
see science as an enemy and scientific progress as something
they must oppose, presumably because the fate of their eternal
souls depends on it. If they fail to uphold the word of AG,
they will suffer eternal torments devised by AG to punish those
who go against his word. On the bright side, if they uphold the
word of AG by vigorously opposing science, they think AG
will reward them with special treats in the afterlife.

Clearly, YEers are
not rational, though their anti-scientific behavior is a logical
consequence of their belief that they are defending the inerrant
word of AG. Any attempt to reason with them, however, is
fruitless. One can point out their errors from now until
doomsday, but to no avail. They don't admit of error, since they
believe they are defending the inerrant word of AG.
(Apparently, they don't even admit that they might be wrong
about the Bible being the inerrant word of AG because this is
revealed to them in the Bible itself.) To their credit (or
discredit, depending on how one looks at these kinds of things),
the YEers of recent years have developed an impressive set of
tactics (quantitatively speaking) to confound those who find
their position untenable in light of the discoveries of science.
Many YEers exert enormous amounts of rhetoric and specious logic
in an attempt to show fault with any scientific discovery that
seems to contradict their weird interpretations of ancient Hebrew
documents. These rhetorical hurricanes apparently give succor to
their band of loyal followers. (For more on these tactics, see
the entries on
creation science and
intelligent design. Or check out the work of people like
Henry M.
Morris, Ken Ham, or
Duane Gish.) One should not mistake their absurd
interpretations of Jewish mythology as evidence of their
inability to reason. YEers are quite capable of devising many
devious and dishonest ruses to accomplish their goals, as
evidenced by the whole idea of "creation
science,"
their behavior in the Dover trial, and by their
devious
campaign to "teach
the controversy" to get their particular view of religion
into our science classrooms. (Note: not all defenders of
creation science or intelligent design are YEers; nor are all
YEers defenders of creation science or intelligent design. One
does not have to be a young Earth creationist to engage in
dishonest and deceptive tactics while serving one's Lord.)

Rational people, when
confronted with mythological stories of creation that contradict
what we know from hundreds of years of scientific discovery,
either reject the myths outright or interpret them figuratively.
For example, the Adam and Eve stories in Genesis might be
rejected as quaint propaganda put forth to make the Jews, as
"the chosen people," feel connected to the most powerful being
in the universe. Or the stories might be seen as a way to
impress on the Jews their utter dependence on their god. Given
what science has discovered about the nature of things and the
origin of our species, no rational person can hold that an
invisible being breathed life into little clay figures or took a
rib from a man and fashioned a woman out of it. Likewise, no
educated person who does not exclude scientific evidence a
priori can hold that every species was created individually by
an act of will by an all-powerful spirit.

What is interesting
about YEers (and others who hold absurd beliefs as true and
inerrant) is that they can compartmentalize their irrationality.
In most other areas of life, YEers can act rationally. For
example, there is no a priori reason why a YEer couldn't serve
on a jury and evaluate evidence regarding a crime in a just and
reasonable fashion. Individual YEers could be as bigoted and
biased as anyone else, but many YEers could undoubtedly be as
good, fair, and honest in judging evidence and testimony as any
non-YEer.

It would be pointless
to examine the particular beliefs of the YEers or to attempt to
refute them with scientific evidence and cogent arguments. Some
might find it of interest to speculate as to what kinds of
psychological or social conditions might lead to such strange
thinking, but such is beyond my purview.

Discovery Rocks Creationists' Claim That Humans Lived with Dinosaurs Ancient images that creationists claim are evidence of humans living alongside dinosaurs are at best just smeared pictures, scientists find...."The most important implication of these findings is that one of the creationist camp's favorite piece of 'evidence' for the coexistence of dinosaurs and humans — a dinosaur petroglyph — doesn't even exist," researcher Phil Senter, a paleontologist at Fayetteville State University in North Carolina, told LiveScience.